Good Morning Saturday!

Sundays are the bastards of the week. People like them on Friday but hate them on Saturday. On a Friday, you know that you don't have to go to work tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, but on Saturday, when you get up at 12 noon with a headache because of too many bloody maries yesterday, you are thinking 'Oh NO!', only one more day of cessation of chores, after which, it's back to the grinding mill! HEEEEEEELP!!

Why Capital Punishment should be banned

Let's say that this guy named A kills another guy named B. Let us also say that A meticulously planned the whole thing and then carried out the plan to the T and was successful in murdering B. Mission Accomplished! The Police catch A and get hold of enough evidence to get a conviction. The judge sentences A to death. Let's call the judiciary apparatus C. Now, C is planning to kill A. C has made meticulous preparations to make sure that A dies. Then, C carries out this meticulous plan to the T and is successful in killing A. Pray tell, what's the difference between A and C?

People sometimes say that the mere presence of capital punishment in the judiciary system of a state is a deterrent for people so that less number of murders and killings are committed. However, we can see that capital punishment has not deterred anyone from actually committing a murder because murders are committed in states with capital punishment as rampantly as those without. Therefore, this argument is nullified.

Also, what I think is that the judiciary should not just vengefully mete out slaps on the wrist (or on the neck, for that matter) and make sure that justice really is served. If justice demands an eye for an eye then what's the difference between the civilized world and the Taliban?

Let's say that a person is executed and somewhere in the future, new evidence comes to light that exonerates the person. What does the state do? How does the state make the person come back to life? The state has no right to take what it cannot give back in the event of a mistake committed on its part. If, however, this person were not executed but was kept in a pennitentiary for life (and I mean for life, with no parole), then the state could release them and ask their forgiveness for the time that the state took from them. This is, I think, better than saying sorry to the family of a deceased.

So, it makes one wonder what the difference between capital punishment and murder really is.

From Snake Charmers to Call Center Workers.

This was a shocker right now! I saw news from India on NBC 10 news at 4! The news, however, was about the "Rolling Seer." It showed a half-naked guy who has rolled (yes, literally rolled) the length and breadth of the country and hopes to get a visa to Pakistan so that he can roll into our neighbor (now that's a metaphor that I don't want to laugh at!). Anyway, this shock was somewhat subdued because Indians are traditionally portrayed in the US media as a country of mendicants and snake charmers and this news item only reinforced the fact. They did never show the flight of the GSLV, nor the LCA. They only show these sort of news that reinforce the stereotype.
I did, however, see a news item the other day in Philadelphia Metro that claimed something else. It said, and I quote verbatim, "The consumer revolution has started in India, what with all the Call Center Workers making such a huge amount of money..." So what do you say, people, have we graduated from being snake charmers to being call center workers?

Why research is so important

Hi guys,
This is my first blog, so please bear with me (you are free to bare with me if you are the appropriate sex and age ;-) Anyway, my first blog is actually about why research is so damn important. Research is important because it gives the student money and the professor material to publish. I know, this sounds like the lamest explanation for research, but really, think about it... It's sort of a Catch22 situation. If there is no research, then there won't be enough students and in turn, there will be no research. Ergo, (this is my word for the day!) research is important to keep research alive!